Mental exhaustion is a real physiological condition
Mental exhaustion is a genuine physiological condition supported by neuroimaging and physiological evidence showing distinct changes in brain connectivity, network activity, and metabolic function following prolonged cognitive effort.
The retrieved papers consistently demonstrate that mental fatigue and exhaustion correspond to objective neurophysiological markers, including alterations in brain functional connectivity, prefrontal oxygenation, and cortical thickness. These empirical findings substantiate the physiological reality of mental exhaustion.
Peng Qi, Hua Ru, Lingyun Gao, Xiaobing Zhang, Tianshu Zhou, Yu Tian, N. Thakor, Anastasios Bezerianos, Jinsong Li, Yu Sun. Neural Mechanisms of Mental Fatigue Revisited: New Insights from the Brain Connectome. 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ENG.2018.11.025
This study uses multivariate functional connectivity analysis to reveal the underlying neural mechanisms and brain connectome reorganizations associated with mental fatigue.
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A. Salihu, K. Hill, S. Jaberzadeh. Neural mechanisms underlying state mental fatigue: a systematic review and activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1515/revneuro-2022-0023
A systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrates that sustained cognitive tasks lead to state mental fatigue accompanied by measurable changes in brain activity within cognitive control and default mode networks.
Haonan Qian, Wenjie Xia, Yongzhen Wang, Seongno Lee. The impact of mental fatigue on physiological tolerance and athletic performance in athletes: Exploring central and peripheral mechanisms. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2025.2573575
Research shows that mental fatigue is associated with distinct neurophysiological and metabolic alterations, such as prefrontal oxygenation changes and neuromuscular activation shifts that reduce endurance performance.
A. Matuz, G. Darnai, A. Zsidó, J. Janszky, Á. Csathó. Structural neural correlates of mental fatigue and reward-induced improvement in performance. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42977-023-00187-y
Investigations into structural neural correlates show that individual differences in subjective mental fatigue correspond to variations in cortical thickness across regions governing executive function and alertness.
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